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The successful mobilization of an urban agenda in international development policy, notably through bringing an urban focus to multilateral and official development aid organizations, has led to significant scaling up of investment in improving urban governance and infrastructure. Urban Masterplanning has been an important foundation for investments in urban infrastructure and large-scale developments. The UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Habitat III process have consolidated and strengthened policy-driven analyses of urbanization and instituted a new orthodoxy of urban development and governance. Many different international organizations are working to activate this approach in poorer cities around the world. The international policy drivers of urbanization across Africa have therefore been significantly intensified, inspired by a humanitarian impulse to “leave no city behind”. A major actor in urban development planning has been the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA), which is the focus of our initial phase of research.
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